Product Description

WELCOME TO THE 4th ANNUAL LOVECRAFTIAN MICRO FICTION CONTEST

DEADLINE IS AUGUST 21, 2017

What is it?

Micro Fiction is very short prose fiction. Smaller than Flash Fiction but bigger than a haiku. Usually 500 words or less. There are some famous short short stories, including Hemingway’s - For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Lovecraftian fiction usually takes the form of Cosmic Horror, Weird Fiction, or Speculative or Science Fiction with a Horror twist, as well as horror or ghost stories with an uncanny tone.

According to Lovecraft, “The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.”

Why Lovecraftian Micro Fiction?

Lovecraft himself wrote some extremely short fiction. "Memory," "What the Moon Brings," and "Ex Oblivione" are examples. Micro Fiction is a fun way to explore a genre or topic in a challenging way. Can you write a complete story in this limited amount of space? By complete story, we mean a character, situation, beginning, middle, and end. Not a vignette, not a character study, but a story.

What do I get if I win?

The winning authors will be published in a chapbook! Winning authors will receive 2 complimentary copies of the chapbook.

The overall winner will also have the opportunity to participate in the 2018 Challenge From Beyond round robin story project with some of the finest modern Lovecraftian Authors! (Past authors include Molly Tanzer, Joseph Pulver, Sr., Wilum Pugmire, Nick Mamatas, Ross Lockhart, Cody Goodfellow, Pete Rawlik, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Gemma Files, Lee Zumpe, Selena Chambers, Nadia Bulkin, Michael Cisco, and Tim Pratt.) Participation is not mandatory if you win.

How to Submit

You can submit up to 5 entries. Submission fee is $5.00 for the first story, with discounts for multiple entries (3 for $12, 4 for $14, 5 for $15). If you are submitting more than one entry, please create one file with a line break and ### between each story, and upload it by clicking the "choose file" button above (.rtf, .odt, or .txt only, .doc files will not be accepted). We will read the number of stories that correspond to the number of entries you chose. For example, if you select 3 entries, but include 5 stories in your file, we will only read the first 3 stories. Once your entry has been completed, you will receive a download link with desktop art and a printable copy of the rules and guidelines.

Why is there a submission fee?

We have done our best to keep submission fees modest and affordable, and while these stories may be short, even the shortest fiction takes time to read. In many cases, multiple people will read each submission many times. Having a submission fee also tells us that you are serious about the competition and your writing, and it ensures that the time and effort we spend reading is devoted to serious entrants. Charging a modest submission fee also helps us defray the costs associated with producing a contest.

Rules, Terms and Conditions

Stories must be 500 words or less. Most word processing programs have a built in word counter. There are also web sites for this, like wordcounter.net

All entries must be English language.

Stories should not require any special formatting besides normal paragraph breaks. We're looking for content, not visual formatting.

All entries must be written by you. You may not submit another author’s work. Your original stories only, please.

Deadline for entries is AUGUST 21, 2017

Winning entries will be notified no later than September 1, 2017.

The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival® & CthulhuConTMreserves the right to publish the winning entries in a limited edition chapbook (no more than 100 copies) which may be sold to cover printing costs. All submissions may be used for promotional purposes. Authors of the top 10 entries will receive 2 complimentary copies of the chapbook, for which shipping in the US is free, and outside the US may incur a small shipping fee. Additional copies will be available for purchase.

Overall winner will be invited to participate in the 2018 Challenge From Beyond round robin story project, which will take place in July/August 2018.